Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA) CEO Busi Mavuso has expressed concern about a press conference held by Human Settlements Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi last month, saying the Minister misguidedly attacked some of the country’s banks.

Kubayi communicated government’s plans to introduce changes to housing finance laws to compel financial institutions to disclose more information about their lending practices, including data on home loans granted and declined.

Mavuso says the Minister cited statistics that did not support her point when she accused banks of discriminating against certain clients for home lending based on their race.

She refers to another instance where Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni accused banks last year of being traitors over allegations of currency manipulation.

The case Ntshavheni was referring to related to certain traders allegedly trying to profit from manipulating the rand; however, this case was dismissed by the Competition Appeal Court over a lack of evidence.

Mavuso says these kinds of attacks on banks by senior officials, which are unsupported by evidence, is damaging to government’s relationship with business.

“It is fine to criticise businesses that do wrong, but it must be backed up by facts, and [Ministers should] avoid inflammatory language designed to cause public outcry.

“Government must realise it has a responsibility to support the health of the business environment which, especially in the case of banks, includes a responsibility not to whip up public sentiment, particularly when there are no facts to support it,” Mavuso explains.  

She adds that while there is much in government that is contributing to a productive partnership, there are still some elements that detract from it.

Mavuso also addresses in her latest weekly newsletter how only 34 of South Africa’s 257 municipalities received clean audits for the latest financial year, down from 38 in the prior year and 41 the year before that.

Only the Western Cape province delivered two more clean audits, instead of fewer. However, there was a decline in the number of municipalities that received disclaimers with findings, which is the worst audit category, from 22 to 12.

Meanwhile, Mavuso welcomed an impactful address delivered by President Cyril Ramaphosa during fellow industry organisation Business Unity South Africa’s annual general meeting last week.

She says the President’s words were positive for the momentum of delivery from the partnership between business and government.

His speech highlighted many of the achievements that the various partnerships between the public and private sectors have led to, including five consecutive months of no loadshedding and important progress on logistics, Mavuso states.

She appreciates the President having addressed the areas that need further work, including overhauling the visa regime to attract critical skills and investment and improving the funding of small businesses.

BLSA is particularly encouraged by Ramaphosa’s comments on prioritising the growth of exports by improving the global competitiveness of local industries and streamlining export processes.

BLSA’s position is that export competitiveness should be the focus of industrial policy. Mavuso hopes Ramaphosa’s words have signalled a shift from the previous administration’s focus on protectionism.

“The momentum we are seeing at the national level through the Government of National Unity needs to trickle down to the local level.

“Coordinated action between the tiers of government has always been very difficult to achieve, but our changed political dynamics and local government elections being only two years away may create the opportunity to get this right,” Mavuso concludes.